Sister Slytherin
by HiddenReaderNinja
Summary: Harry Potter may have been the one to survive the killing curse, but he wasn't the only one to have survived that night.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N**

**Hi everyone. HiddenReaderNinja here. So I've had this idea in my head for years, but never actually tried writing them out. This is my first fanfiction, so I hope you like it. Reviews are appreciated because I'm infamous for having writers block.**

**Enjoy!**

**Oh, and I almost forgot.**

**Disclamer:**

**I, HiddenReaderNinja am not JK Rowling and never have been and never will be. If I were, I'd have a really cool accent and an awesome movie deal. Harry Potter is just out of my reach...**

Godric's Hollow was a place known for its holiday fun, and today being Halloween was different. Pumpkins lined the street corners, and children scampered around the streets dressed up from everything between witches and wizards, to knights and princesses, to doctors and firemen. The street carnival had, by the looks of it, attracted the entire village out to bob for apples, play carnival games, and of course, journey through the haunted house.

A tall, hooded man walked through the crowd, not joining in the festivities. He only paused momentarily to sneer disdainfully at the magician, who was entertaining a group of children with his card tricks. Leaving behind the excited crowd, the Dark Lord walked steadily with one purpose in mind – the Potters. After these many years, he would finally bring down the great Potters. They had defied him for the last time.

And there it was. The Dark Lord laughed to himself as he approached his kill. How diligently they had tried to keep themselves from him, going so far as to hide here amongst the muggles and muggle-lovers; it must've been the Mudblood's idea.

But no matter. No one could hide from the Dark Lord – they could only delay the inevitable, and now even that was right at their door, which he blasted off its hinges with a flick of his wand.

Yells and shouts ensued, and the Dark Lord reveled in havoc he wreaked.

"He's here! Lily, take the twins and go!" shouted James as he frantically searched for his wand, all while attempting to block Voldemort from his wife.

"You're a traitor to your kind, Potter. We need wizards like you – with blood pure and true. Join us, and all shall be forgiven."

James bristled at the threat, and stiffened in resolve.

"I'd rather die." He declared, and threw himself at Voldemort, but immediately found himself pinned against the wall by the force of Voldemort's wand.

"You think that mere force will stop me, Potter?" breathed Voldemort. "Do you think to defeat me without even a wand to defend yourself?"

"Perhaps not. But at least I'll die protecting those I love."

"Then you die in vain!" he hissed, and with a flash of green light, James Potter crumpled to the ground, his glasses askew and messy hair ruffled even further in death.

Lily Potter had barricaded herself in the upstairs nursery when she heard Voldemort blast aside the debris in front of the door. Kissing her children for what she knew would be the last time, she brushed away the tears that had begun to fall and turned around. Refusing to step away from her children as he demanded, the last thing she saw before life left her was a flash of green light.

Voldemort turned from the body that now lay at his feet and surveyed the two small children who were sitting in the crib. The boy watched him curiously, having seen few strangers in his young lifetime. The girl, whose red hair mirrored her mother's, looked somber. Sneering at the pair of them, Voldemort pointed his wand at the boy, who began to whimper in fright. This was the big moment.

"Avada Kedavra!"

The world seemed to explode and the air was filled with screams. Not only the screams of the babies in the crib, but another, unearthly sound that seemed to consume all other sounds until it vanished in a whirlwind of sound . A deathly silence filled the air and the only things remaining in the room were two whimpering children, a crumbling roof, and the figure of a young mother, never to reawaken from her slumber.

As the villagers of Godric's Hollow, began to investigate the source of the disturbance that had ruined their Halloween fun, no one knew how truly extraordinary the events unfolding were. No one knew that for Harry and Lily Ann Potter, the story was only beginning.

**Hope y'all liked it. Good? Bad? Ideas? Please review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hey everyone. Here's chapter two for you. It was kinda hard for me to write because most of my thoughts for this story happen when they're already at school. **

**Disclaimer: I due not own Harry Potter. If I did, I would have been a very intelligent one year old.**

Chapter 2: Ten Years Later

POV: Lily Ann

Lily Ann Potter was nervous. It was her cousin Dudley's birthday and she had no idea if he would like his present; Aunt Petunia wouldn't. Gathering towards herself all the various flowers she had been collecting, Lily Ann tucked them gently into the tin and hid it under the hedge in the garden. She didn't know why she was being so secretive – they were only flowers – but somehow she knew that Aunt Petunia wouldn't approve of what she was using them for. She never seemed to like the abnormal.

Running inside, Lily Ann quickly knocked on her brother's door under the stairs and whispered through the crack, "Hurry. They'll be getting up soon and then all hell will be let loose if you're still in there."

She heard a mumbled reply and she darted upstairs into her bedroom before anyone could see that we she was up and about. She scrunched her brow in thought as she wondered why she and Harry were treated so differently. She wasn't supposed to be up before Dudley, who never was up before nine when he didn't need to be, but Harry wasn't supposed to be in bed after Aunt Petunia had risen, which was never later than seven. Lily Ann had the bedroom next to Dudley's, but Harry only had the cupboard under the stairs.

And it wasn't like there weren't enough bedrooms at number four, Privet Drive. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon shared a room, which was across from Dudley's room. Lily Ann had the smallest room, which was across from the spare bedroom in which few people ever entered. Lily Ann often wondered why Harry didn't couldn't stay there, but the idea was always side swept because they "needed to have room incase visitors came." Uncle Vernon's sister occasionally endured a few days there, though she never stayed long because she couldn't stand to be away from her dogs.

Even Dudley treated her differently. Dudley treated her like a sister and beat up anyone who teased her whereas Harry was the one to get beaten up all the time. She couldn't make heads or tails of it.

Hearing the screeching of Aunt Petunia coming from downstairs, Lily Ann knew that Harry had gone back to sleep and she grinned to herself, forgetting her previous thoughts.

* * *

POV: Dudley

Dudley was getting bored. At first looking at some of the big powerful animals like the lion and bear had made him feel strong, but as they passed the penguin exhibit and it had been a while since they had passed any dangerous animals, he and Piers began to throw small stones at the animals to see how they would react. However now they were in the reptile house and there was glass that made it impossible to get at the snakes.

Shame. He had really wanted to _at least_ set a tarantula on his cousin.

Barely glancing at the smaller snakes and creatures, Dudley soon found the large and mighty python. He smirked at it, thinking about how much fun it would be to wrestle with it. Obviously he would win. The snake didn't even have arms.

Dudley's fantasies soon died as it became very evident of how very _boring _snakes were. It didn't even move; even the gorilla had done that. Turning away from the snake, Dudley went to whine at his mother that he wanted some ice cream.

Out of the corner of his eye, Dudley thought he saw Harry in front of the exhibit. And was he… talking to the snake? Smirking, Dudley turned to Piers to signal to him that Harry Hunting had begun when he saw it. The snake was raising its head, looking at Harry, probably wondering how tasteless someone so skinny must be. But it was _moving._

"Get out of the way," Dudley demanded, punching Harry in the stomach. What happened next, Dudley had no idea. But somehow or another, he found himself soaking wet, laying in the exhibit as the snake hissed at Harry and slithered out, amidst screaming by all nearby patrons. And when he tried to leave like the python, he found glass instead of air.

* * *

POV: Lily Ann

Lily Ann Potter had to wait hours before Aunt Petunia would let Dudley out of her sight. He was still jittering like crazy and Uncle Vernon was shouting about suing the zoo, and the glass company, and everyone else he could think of blaming. She was a lot less sure about herself and her gift.

When Dudley had fallen in to that snake exhibit, Aunt Petunia kept throwing glares at Harry, which sort of made sense, but also at her. Maybe she knew about her secret.

Sitting in Dudley's room with the door shut tight, Lily Ann pulled out the tin that she had been saving and handed it to him.

Glancing warily at her, he opened the tin and saw the lily blossoms that she had collected. Dudley asked, "What's this?"

Nervously, Lily Ann spoke. "Well, I didn't know what to get you for your birthday and so I thought that I'd share with you a secret. Something I haven't even told Harry. Hold out your hand."

He did so, and she put one of the flowers in his hand and then blew on it. Slowly, the pedals opened and closed as if day and night had passed all at once. Dudley watched in shock for a moment, and then looked up at Lily Ann, who was watching him closely.

As his eyes clouded, Lily Ann suddenly knew she had made the wrong choice.

"You're a freak. You and your brother. It's not normal. _You're _not normal." He tore the flowers into tiny pieces and thrust the tin back at her. _"Freak." _

He pushed her out of the room and she stood there looking at her tin, the remains of her flowers already beginning to curl. And tears finally began to trickle out of her green eyes as she wondered if he was right.

**So did you like it? Next chapter they find out they have magic... go to Diagon Alley... and Lily Ann meets a certain blonde-headed boy.**

**R&R Please!**

**HiddenReaderNinja out. :)**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Guess what guys? I'm back! **

***crickets* Oh, right. It's been a really long time, and you can officially hate me. But I have an excuse! I had two proms following my last update, along with a school play that took up all after school time, plus three AP tests, a choir tour, SAT testing, finals, singing at school graduation, and a week long campout. By that time, I had just fallen out of practice and was renewed three days ago when I open my email to find that I had gotten another subscription! Which was super exciting to me because this is my first FanFic.**

**So _Ms Lucinda, _this one's for you.**

**Disclaimer: JK Rowling is English. I'm American. The End. **

Chapter 3: It's Better to Be a Witch

POV Harry

The floor of a small, cold shack in the middle of the sea on a stormy night is never an advisable place to sleep, and is definitely even more uncomfortable on the eve of you birthday, but Harry potter didn't really have much choice, and he watched his sister curled in a ball as he counted down the minutes until he… they would be eleven.

It was weird though. Ever since the snake incident, Lily Ann had seemed rather distant, as if she knew that he had talked to the snake shortly before the glass had mysteriously vanished. Or maybe she blamed him like the rest of the family did. But that didn't explain why she no longer spent time with Dudley or why she seemed to have lost all her confidence.

Five minutes to go and they would be eleven. Maybe he should wake Lily Ann so they could celebrate together. Remember her last reaction to being waken up in the middle of the night, Harry thought better of it.

What was that outside?

Looking at Dudley's watch, Harry saw the last few seconds before his birthday fade away when the door quite suddenly was blown off its hinges with three loud, consecutive BOOMs.

* * *

POV Lily Ann

Lily Ann bit her lip and watched her feet as Hagrid, this giant, hairy creature of a man explained to them that they both had magic and were going to be attending a school of magic. Unlike Harry, she had no difficulty whatsoever in believing that she was… a witch. And contrary to what Harry thought, she didn't find this at all comforting. This seemed to confirm every fear Lily Ann had about her gift – curse – and she wanted nothing to do with it. She remembered from history lessons that there had been many witch hunts worldwide in the fourteen and fifteen hundreds; those convicted were burned at the stake. If witches were a good thing, why were all the stories of them bad?

"It's the only place for folks like us."

She heard the words, but couldn't place the speaker. For all she knew, she had simply thought them.

_It's the only place._

* * *

The trip through London was an uncomfortable one; at least, it was for Lily Ann. Everywhere she turned, people were staring, pointing, whispering about the witch and wizards in their midst. Every glance was judging, every rushed footstep was fleeing in fear and every word was spreading her secret.

Finally, when Lily Ann thought she couldn't take it anymore, the crowd seemed to thin and an old creaking sign baring dark iron cauldron over a very old oak door seemed to appear from out of nowhere.

Hagrid ushered them inside. Looking at her brother, Lily Ann saw excitement in his eyes, though he had an overall aura of jumpy nervousness. Hagrid had called this place famous, and if this was what classified as famous in the wizarding world, then it was exactly what she had expected it to be. The small pub was dark and had the appearance of grubbiness. The chatter almost appeared hushed, and it completely died when the three of them entered the pub.

After Hagrid exchanged a few words with the bartender, it appeared as if the entire pub were surrounding her and Harry. Hagrid stood off to the side, beaming at the both of them. The witches and wizards excitedly chattered in pure celebration, and Lily Ann couldn't help but think of the story of Hansel and Gretel as she hoped they weren't hungry.

"Oh my Merlin!"

"Lily Ann Potter! You look just like your mother! She was a fantastic witch!"

"Welcome back, Mr. Potter, welcome back."

"Dedalus, Dedalus! It's the Potters, Dedalus! The Potters are back!"

After talking to many, many more people, including a stuttering man who smelled strongly of garlic and who was introduced as Professor Quirrell, a teacher who taught something to do with Dark Arts (here Lily Ann shuddered), they finally were able to escape into the back of the shop to a small, walled in courtyard. Lily Ann warily watched Hagrid as he tapped a brick in the wall. The moment it opened up, Lily Ann could tell that Harry was lost. She however looked at everything with a much more critical eye.

She first noticed the apothecary, in which she was cauldrons and hot fires, live rats and snakes, crawling bugs, and something that looked eerily like blood. Across the street she saw a cage of bats, and somewhere down the road Lily Ann heard a boy crying that he had lost his toad. Even the most normal looking store, the bookstore, had books flying around in every direction, some screaming bloody murder.

As the three of them approached a white marble building that Hagrid informed them was the wizarding bank, Gringotts which was run my goblins, Lily Ann had to beg herself out, claiming culture shock. In reality however, Lily Ann was beginning to doubt the wisdom in her choice to go to Hogwarts and was trying to avoid anything particularly magical. Sitting down on the white marble steps (which glowed faintly and didn't appear to have any shadow), she put her face in her hands, remembering the little bit of magic she had showed Dudley with this lily flowers, and began to cry. That is, until she felt the staring of pale, blond boy who was leaning up against one of the stone columns of the building.

"What do you want?" she muttered, sniffing away her tears.

Smirking slightly, the boy, who looked to be Lily Ann's own age drawled in a bored tone, "Nothing much. I was just waiting here for my parents. You know, it takes so long to reach our vaults because they're just so deep. And the security, let's just say it's a nightmare. So I'm out here waiting for them and decided to come over to see why you were crying. Was that giant man you were with yelling at you or something? I swear I could hear him from up the street."

"Why is it your business?" Lily Ann demanded rudely, but then quickly apologized. "I'm sorry. It's just my parents are dead and I was raised by a bunch of… what are they called? Oh yes… Muggles… who were perfectly wonderful to me until I got my letter… they all hate me now. Apparently when they took me in, they swore they would beat the magic out of me. I'm crying because magic is supposed to be a bad thing. All the stories say so, and there were witch hunts and everything. I don't want to be a witch."

The blond boy looked far from sympathetic, but there was something in his eyes that caught her attention. It wasn't quite passion… it was something more…fervent and flaming. He walked over to her.

"First off," he said, looking down at her, "Muggles don't know anything. I've heard they've come up with this stupid theory that says that creatures exist because nature chose them because they were better suited for living. If that were true, there would be no Muggles. All those stories you've heard were made up by Muggles trying to frighten their children and convince them that magic is bad. Because of Muggles, we have to hide from them, as if they were better than us! But they're not. If we really wanted to, we could rule the world, but we don't. We let them live, believing that they're the only ones out there. We once tried living with them, but they kicked us out! Can you believe it, _they _kicked _us _out? And the Ministry of Magic made this stupid Secrecy Decree that we all have to live by so the Muggles can live in their ignorance."

Lily Ann was shocked. Could it be true that the wizard world was just hiding because Muggles didn't want anything to do with them? "That hardly seems fair." She said after thinking over his words.

"It's not. And that's why I hate Muggles. If we tell them the truth, they'd just hate us and try and kill us. They wouldn't win, but the Ministry is too weak to do anything useful against them. We shouldn't have to live in hiding, but because of the Ministry and the hatred of Muggles, we have to. If I were you, I would renounce any affiliation to Muggles before you're branded a Muggle lover." Looking over his shoulder, the pale boy said. "I've got to go. See you at school."

And with that, the boy was gone, leaving Lily Ann alone with her thoughts. She looked down at her feet to see a lily flower. She picked it up and for the first time in weeks, used her magic to open and close the pedals.

"I'm a witch. Dudley you better well believe it."

**Love it? Hate it? I was actually really surprised by Lily Ann's attitude... it's completely different then what I originally planned... but I think I like it. It really has given me a lot of new insights into the series...**

**What do you think of Lily Ann's mood swing?**

**R&R You saw what a simple subscription did for me!**

**HiddenReaderNinja out!**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Well hello guys! After an extensive, unintentional leave of absence as I enjoyed my summer, I am back. Though I refuse to make any excuses (though staying up reading really long HP fanfictions for up to 27 hours would make a good one) and I can't make any promises (though I am trying) I do hope you'll forgive me as we continue to explore the Wizarding World through the eyes of Lily Ann Potter.**

**Disclaimer: There's a reason the saying goes "The next JK Rowling." At this point, that's not me.**

Chapter 4: A Place to Belong

POV: Harry

September first, the day everything would change. Harry Potter woke early, even by Aunt Petunia's standards, and couldn't help but pace as the clock ticked slowly towards eleven o'clock. As he paced, Harry thought about how much everything could change in so little time. He had been utterly miserable up until the day Hagrid came crashing through that door, wind howling behind him. Harry grinned at the memory. At the time, Harry couldn't tell if Hagrid was a man or a bear. Suddenly Harry had a background, money, people who genuinely seemed interested in him, and a future; in short, Harry had a place he belonged.

Looking around at the walls of the room he now shared with his sister, Harry suddenly realized how blind he'd been. Lily Ann had been keeping to herself a lot lately, silent and sullen. At first he couldn't put his finger on it, but now after a lot of thinking, Harry realized that she must be lonely. She had always been on very good terms with the Dursleys, and had spent a lot of time with Dudley. She had always excused herself when Dudley was in a hitting mood, but Dudley actually restrained himself quite a bit when she was around. But now even that was gone, and that couldn't be easy for her. Harry swore to himself that he would find her some friends the moment he got on the train.

POV: Lily Ann

Contrary to what Harry thought, Lily Ann was not lonely. At least, that's what she told herself. Her so called family, who had taken her in knowing full well what and who she was, had turned on her the moment she had been declared a witch; why would she be lonely for that? They had never loved the real her. Besides, she had her new Great Gray, Twilight for company, and Harry, if he ever got over his fawning of magic. Yes, they had magic, but that didn't mean he had to make notice of it every five minutes. It only made life worse at number four, Privet Drive, something that Lily Ann was seriously trying to avoid.

No, she wasn't lonely; she was angry. Behind her quiet demeanor was a deep resentment towards muggles in general and the Dursleys in particular, and as she and Harry walked through the crowd at Kings' Cross Station, Lily Ann couldn't help but glare at the people who they passed. If they knew what she was, they wouldn't just idly let her pass by. They'd likely take her, lock her up, and snap her brand new nine-and-a-half inch unicorn hair Rowan wand in half faster than she could use it to escape, even if she did know how to use it. And that'd be if she were lucky. If she weren't, there'd be another witch hunt at their hands.

After what seemed like an eternity of wading through tourists, business men, school children, and security, the two of them finally reached the platforms nine and ten, but nowhere was there a sign that even suggested a platform nine and three-quarters, even one that couldn't be seen by muggles like the Leaky Cauldron. But Harry, being the optimist that he had become in the past month, immediately looked around and spotted a group of red heads, all of whom appeared to be talking at once, and one of whom had an _owl_**. **

With confidence that was so very un-Harry like, Harry marched up to the bemused looking woman who appeared to be the mother of the group and said with no more than a moment's hesitation, "Excuse me, but could you help us get onto the platform? You see, we've never been and…"

"Oh not to worry, dear. It's Ron's first year as well."

The witch, for she most certainly was a witch, looked down at them with such a kind, motherly expression that it almost made Lily Ann think of Aunt Petunia until she remembered her betrayal and squashed the memory. She hated Aunt Petunia; any memory that told her otherwise was a lie.

"All you have to do is walk straight at the barrier between nine and ten," the witch continued, bringing Lily Ann out of her turmoil. "Best to do it at a run, if you're nervous."

After watching the tallest of the boys run at the wall, quickly followed by a pair of twins who called themselves Fred and George – George and Fred? – Harry grabbed her arm and said, "Come on then, we haven't got all day." He then proceeded to run at the wall full force. Rolling her eyes at his antics, Lily Ann followed, leaving behind her brother's theatrics.

Upon entering the platform, Lily Ann had to stop herself from gaping. Over the past month, she had almost convinced herself that she and Harry actually _were_ freaks of nature and that Hagrid, Diagon Alley, and that blond boy were all just figments of her imagination to make her feel like she belonged someplace. But upon seeing the brightly polished train with hundreds of witches and wizards milling about in robes of every color imaginable, Lily Ann finally let herself hope for a better future. For the first time in a month, Lily Ann felt joy and excitement about being a witch. Looking down at her Muggle clothing, she decided that she would shed them at the first opportunity; if she was going to enter this new world, she was going to rid herself of everything Muggle and fully embrace the Wizarding World. If Muggles were going to turn their backs on her, she would turn her back on Muggles.

Seeing Harry already setting forth to find a compartment, Lily Ann stopped her staring and ran after him, hoping in the back of her mind to find that blond boy from Diagon Alley who had been so kind as to help her understand what it meant to be a witch. Perhaps he could help her further understand the Wizarding World. The last thing she wanted was to be branded a Muggle lover by her obvious lack of knowledge of anything remotely magical.

At the end of the train, they found an empty compartment were almost immediately accosted by the two red headed twins they had met earlier on the platform.

"We couldn't help noticing…"

"…as it is in our nature to notice…"

"…that you two came alone…"

"…and as such might have need of a hand…"

"…or four as this case might be…"

"…with your trunks."

Lily Ann blinked twice, nonplussed. Never before had she seen two siblings so in sync with the other; she hardly could tell which one was speaking.

"Oh look, Fred, I think we've stunned them into silence."

"I do believe you're right, George. I believe we have some demonstrations for the ickle firsties."

"Right you are, Fred."

And without another word, the twins whipped out their wands with a flick, sent Lily Ann and Harry's luggage flying onto the train and into the overhead luggage compartments. With a flourish, they tucked away their wands, bowed to each other, and then finally to Lily Ann and Harry who were standing in stunned silence.

"Fred and George Weasley at your service!" recited the twins as they snapped to attention and mock saluted the pair, an effect that was completely lost when Fred leaned in to whisper behind his hand.

"This is the point where you introduce yourselves so we know who it is we're pranking before we've pranked them. It's a minor inconvenience not knowing whose daddy we'll be receiving a Howler from beforehand."

Lily Ann surprised herself when she giggled at their theatrics, and momentarily forgetting the fiasco at the Leaky Cauldron, she mock bowed to the twins and introduced herself.

"My name is Lily Ann, and this is my twin brother Harry. As to receiving anything from our parents, I think you're safe."

The Weasley Twins' act dropped as quickly as their jaws.

"You aren't…?

"They are!"

"It can't be!

"But it is!"

"What the hell are you badgering on about?" Harry, being the thick-headed idiot that he was, asked.

"The Potter Twins!"

"Oh, er, yea, we are," Harry blushed slightly.

Lily Ann had thought that she was used to the gawking of others from her experience at the Leaky Cauldron and Diagon Alley, but realized she likely never would as the Weasley twins gaped at them in astonishment. Saved from further questioning as the boys' mother called them, Lily Ann leaned over to her brother.

"Saved by the bell."

* * *

The train ride took entirely too long for Lily Ann. What with Harry and his new best friend, Ronald Weasley –another red-headed brother of Fred and George – gouging on candy (Lily Ann point blank refused to even touch the bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans after hearing of George's booger flavored one) and with a bushy haired witch called Hermione Granger trying to teach her everything she had learned from _Hogwarts, A History _when she saw Lily Ann was the only girl in the pack of wolves, Lily Ann was getting rather frustrated when the train finally came to a screeching halt.

Leaving behind their luggage, she, Harry, Ron, and Hermione clambered off the train and looked around with mild interest. They were standing in the outskirts of a small village ("It's called Hogsmeade. It's the only entirely magical community in all of Britain. I read all about it in _Magical Encounters of the Twentieth Century),_ and a tall and looming figure was waving a large lantern down the way, shouting.

"Firs' years! Firs' years over here! Hurry up, make way! Firs' years follow me! All right there, you two?"

It was Hagrid, looking as hairy and disheveled as he ever had. Now that she understood more about magic, Lily Ann felt much more receptive to the large man and grinned up at him.

"All right, Hagrid?"

Lily Ann's first glimpse of the castle was fantastic. The castle's many windows sparkled in the reflection of the lake before them, and the view from the boats was even better. The towers and turrets and the seeming never endingness to the entire thing made the entire experience… magical. It was like a fairy tale, but better because she would actually be able to use magic, not just have magic used on her. Now being led through the Great Hall, Lily Ann's excitement level spiked as she realized once again that here were hundreds of people her own age who were just like her: magical.

As Ron, Harry, and perhaps even Hermione were panicking about the sorting that would shortly take place, Lily Ann felt a great calm settle upon her. It didn't really matter to her what House she was put in. As long as she could prove herself to be better than the Dursleys, that's all that mattered. Who cared that every witch or wizard to go bad was once in Slytherin; that didn't mean they all went bad. Supposedly the truest friends were found in Hufflepuff, but you could find friends anywhere. No, it didn't matter where she was sorted; she would enjoy herself no matter where she was placed.

She nodded to herself and was startled when the old, tattered hat in front of them began to sing. It was an odd song that was full of the virtues of each house, and as it ended its song, it only reconfirmed her opinion that no one house was better than the next.

Lily Ann shook herself out of her reverie as she realized that half of the sorting was already finished.

"MacDougal, Morag!"

"RAVENCLAW!

"Macmillan, Ernest!

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

As Ernest, ran down to join his new house, Lily Ann noticed the next boy who Professor McGonagall had called, "Malfoy, Draco," who was put into Slytherin. She smiled at him as she realized it was the boy from Gringotts, and smirked at her brother as she was thinking of how this was a perfect example of how his and Ron's bias towards Slytherins was false. However Harry was pursing his lips into a tight line with dislike as he watched Draco, and Ron was whispering franticly in his ear. Slightly confused, she turned as she watched "Moon, Lily" get sorted into Hufflepuff.

After what seemed an eternity but really couldn't have been more than a few minutes, "Potter, Harry" was called and Lily Ann gave her brother's hand a quick squeeze as he made his way nervously forward. The hat seemed to sit there for a while, and as she looked at Harry's face scrunched up in concentration, she realized he was arguing with the hat because of the look of frustration that she saw on his face that only ever entered it when he got brave enough to argue with Uncle Vernon. She smirked as she realized what it was he likely was arguing about.

Finally the hat shouted out to the anticipating school, "GRYFFINDOR!"

The roar of the Gryffindors, and a few of the other houses, was so loud that Professor McGonagall had to wait for several seconds before she could call out the next name.

"Potter, Lily Ann!"

The school went deathly silent as Lily Ann walked forward, and she couldn't help but noticing the Gryffindors on the edge of their seats, anticipating the victory of having the Potter Twins in their house.

"I dare say, this is a change. A nice change I must say, but a change nonetheless," said a small voice in her ear. "Brave, and very loyal I can see, with a need to prove yourself, but with no reservations like your brother did."

Not able to contain herself any longer, Lily Ann couldn't help but ask, "Is that what Harry was arguing about? He didn't want to be in Slytherin?"

She could almost feel the hat smile as the quite voice spoke again, "Ah, very bright as well. Difficult. But interhouse relations are so important and you seem to be able to understand that better than anyone else so the best place to start would have to be...

"SLYTHERIN!"

**Well, that's all I've got. Once again it's been proven to me that the character determines their path rather than the author. I **_so_ **wanted to make Lily Ann somewhat dark, but apparently Lily Ann didn't want to be. So I had to improvise, making me realize I'll probably never know what's going to happen until it happens. **

**So I need to know a few things: what do you want from Lily Ann? How close does she get to Draco? How close is she with her brother and his muggle-loving friends? What can I do better?**

**If you have any ideas, I'd love to hear them!**

**R&R!**

**~HiddenReaderNinja**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Hey all! I have to say that after a couple of months of working on this story, I'm (finally) actually starting to like it. I know that might sound odd, but writing this has been pure torture to me until the past month when suddenly it's like OKAY! Let's do this! And I LOVE it.**

**That being said, this was actually going to go up last week, but I lost my flash drive on Sunday and then we went camping all week.**

** As you may have seen, the description of this story has changed and the title is now ****_Sister Slytherin. _****This is because at first I was going to make this be seven different stories following the books, but on further reflection, I've decided to combine all seven years into one story.**

**Disclaimer: How many Ravenclaws does it take to do the disclaimer? None, because it doesn't take a Ravenclaw to know that I don't own Harry Potter. Anything that seems familiar either directly or indirectly belongs to JK Rowling**

Chapter 5: Turned Tables

POV: Lily Ann

"Slytherin? Did it say Slytherin?"

"Barking mad, it is."

Whispers somehow seemed to stand out to Lily Ann, making her smirk at the naivety of her peers as she walked with a slight bounce in her step towards the table that was roaring in approval at a volume that rivaled the Gryffindors'. Looking at Harry's peers, Lily Ann couldn't help notice their dejected look and remembered what Hermione had said on the train about the fierce competition between the two houses. Perhaps she could do something about that, having her own brother in Gryffindor. That did appear to be why the Sorting Hat had put her in Slytherin.

Sliding into the seat next to Draco, who appeared to have just shoved Gregory from the seat to make room for her, she smiled at the boy and said, "Fancy seeing you here. I was rather hoping to find you on the train."

"Yes well," the boy drawled, "I was rather preoccupied. Some fool decided to spread a rumor that the Potters were on board so I naturally had to search the train to make sure they were in good company."

"Oh how honorable of you," Lily Ann said sweetly, fighting the smirk that was slowly creeping up her face. "And it took you that long to search the entire train?"

"No," said the boy who had just been sorted as he sat down next to the reseated Gregory. "No, he was stopped by Jordan and the Weasleys. Apparently they heard about this quest of Draco's and decided he needed an extra eight eyes and legs for him to complete it so put a tarantula down his shirt to compensate. You should've seen the look on his face!" The boy looked off into the distance, lost in the memory.

"Nobody asked you, Zabini," scowled Draco, and turned to the feast that had just appeared in front of them, ignoring the laughter of his housemates.

POV: Harry

"I can't believe it!" Harry growled, glaring over at the Slytherin table. "She's schmoozing up to him! That filthy, arrogant, pompous, no good little git!"

"I know mate, I know. But don't take it out on your plate!" Ron said in what was supposed to be a soothing voice but actually came out sounding quite thick as Ron made his way through his third helping of fried chicken. "You can always get him personally later."

Harry had looked down at his hardly touched steak and realized he was indeed very close to shattering the plate beneath it if he continued to saw at it like he had for the past five minutes. When the hat had shouted out Slytherin, he had thought it was a mistake. Who in their right mind would put Lily Ann in a house full of evil snakes? Especially considering that it was one of those snakes that had tried to kill both of them when they were only one.

"Get who?" asked Hermione nosily as she emerged from a conversation with Percy about classes. "You better not be picking fights. You'd be losing points before we've even started!"

"I'm not picking fights," Harry argued haughtily. "It's my responsibility as a brother to make sure my sister isn't hanging around the wrong crowd."

Harry looked again at the Slytherin table where Lily Ann was animatedly talking to Malfoy, who looked smug and very pleased with himself. Lily Ann looked up and saw Harry looking at her, giving him a small smile, but continued talking as if nothing had happened.

Hermione rolled her eyes, "Honestly Harry, do you really think that's going to work? She's in Slytherin; it should only be expected that she would be making friends _in her own house._ You can't expect her to ignore her house in favor of ours."

"I can," growled Harry, clenching his fork so tightly his knuckles turned white. "Everyone knows she should've been Sorted in Gryffindor." This made Harry wonder why she didn't ask the hat to be put in Gryffindor too. They weren't that different, were they?

"Besides," Ron interjected before Hermione could cut in again, "It's not about her making friends with Slytherins. It's about her making friends with that _particular _Slytherin."

"I hardly think that's fair," Hermione huffed haughtily. "What have you got against him anyways? Just because you had a bad first impression doesn't mean he's a bad person. My parents always told me to never judge a book by its cover."

"Does everything always have to be about books with you, Hermione?" Ron demanded. " Everyone knows that you never mess with the Malfoys; they're bad news. Besides," Ron added darkly, spearing a bit of potato and waving it for emphasis. "The Malfoys were all on You-Know-Who's side during the war. Dad reckons they only came back to our side when they realized it was either that or Azkaban."

"That's exactly what his aunt got," piped up Neville, but as if realizing he had just spoken, backtracked a little and added in a small voice, "At least, that's what I've heard."

Hermione relented a little, but huffed stubbornly, "Just because some of the family is bad doesn't mean all Malfoys are inherently evil."

"In his case, it does," Harry muttered darkly into his plate.

Hermione harrumphed and turned away from the boys, completely annoyed with their attitudes.

Harry was still plotting how to get at Malfoy the next morning when suddenly his scheming was interrupted by a whooshing sound from overhead. Hundreds upon hundreds of owls were flying in circles overhead, all bearing envelopes, packages, and newspapers as they searched for the respectable owners. Harry found himself ducking quickly as an owl flew down to Lee Jordan next to him, affectively spilling pumpkin juice down his robes.

As Harry gaped at the hundreds of owls overhead (and as a horrible stench wafted over from Lee's general direction as he, Fred, and George tore open the parcel and quickly stored its contents in the folds of their robes) Harry had an epiphany, and he wondered why he hadn't thought of it before.

"Fred, George, I need your help settling a score."

Turning to him, they grinned wickedly.

"Ah, Fred. Look at him, our ickle Harrykins is already out for blood."

"I always knew he would want to follow in our footsteps."

"It only seems like yesterday that we left him alone on the train with ickle Ronnikins."

"I do believe that _was_ yesterday, Fred."

"I do believe you're right, George. They grow up so fast, sometimes I forget."

"Though it's hard to forget because they so quickly come back groveling."

Ron rolled his eyes at his brothers, but Harry ignored their jibes; he had something more important in mind. Leaning closer to the twins, Harry said in a low voice, quickly glancing over at the Slytherin table conspiratorially, "What do you guys feel about going after Draco Malfoy?"

POV: Lily Ann

Lily Ann had never had such a good week before in her life – she had discounted any and all memories that portrayed the Dursley's in any positive light – and couldn't wait to tell her brother about her week during their afternoon tea with Hagrid.

Walking down the stairs to their first lesson of Potions, she couldn't help think of how her life had completely turned around from a month ago. Upon arrival at Hogwarts, Lily Ann had found people who like her – the real her – and even though Pansy Parkinson could be a little annoying and Milicent Bulstrode was somewhat of a bully to other first years, Daphne Greengrass and Tracey Davis were wonderful people, and Lily Ann was really loving her housemates. Draco and sometimes Blaise would talk to her every evening after dinner while they were working on homework and would help her with her understanding of the Wizarding World. While she didn't necessarily agree with everything they had to say, she was grateful for her better understanding of things around her.

Becoming a witch was probably the best thing that had ever happened to her.

Potions class took place in the dungeons, and was substantially cooler than the rest of the school. Not that Lily Ann minded, she kind of liked the way the cool air rested on her skin; it felt like being inside of a cool dark cave or the cool morning mist before the sun has hit it.

Entering the classroom and seeing Hermione Granger looking as ever ready to take on the world, Lily Ann suddenly realized that this was the first time that the Slytherins and Gryffindors had shared a class before, and as such Lily Ann had no idea what to expect from the two rivals.

Professor Snape on the other hand did, and as he swept in just moments after Harry and Ron ran in looking flushed and slightly out of breath and mere seconds before the bell rang, he called out "Settle down!" although it was already silent. Apparently he was used to at least some form of commotion, though Lily Ann really couldn't imagine Professor Snape toleration commotion.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making. I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even put a stopper to death."

His black, beady eyes scanned the classroom, daring anyone to interrupt, stopping momentarily on Harry as he did so. Lily Ann couldn't help notice that he avoided looking at her, just as he had when passing out the class schedules the first day. She frowned, unable to make anything of it, but shrugged; she was probably just imagining things.

"Mr. Potter!" Snape snapped, causing about half of the Gryffindors to jump. Poor Longbottom even fell out of his seat. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Harry looked at Ron, who looked just as perplexed as Lily Ann felt, before turning back to Professor Snape, "I don't know, sir."

Professor Snape's face contorted into something that Lily Ann didn't like, though made Draco chortle and Pansy smirk. Gregory and Vincent didn't seem to know how to react, so settled on silently laughing like Draco.

"Tut, tut – fame clearly isn't everything."

"Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"

Draco began shaking from the effort of not laughing, and Lily Ann looked at him quizzically, "Do you know?"

Draco began shaking even more and choked out, barely containing his mirth as he shook his head, "Of course not; we have servants to knowhow to make these. Father told me all about Professor Snape, and he's even better than I thought." He choked again and stopped talking as Harry again responded.

"I don't know, sir."

Lily Ann frowned as she saw Hermione with her arm thrust in the air. Professor Snape was pointedly ignoring her. He was clearly picking on Harry in the one was he could as a professor.

"Though you wouldn't open a book before coming, eh, Potter?"

Professor Snape looked as if he were going to further test Harry, but Lily Ann had had enough; it was time to turn the tables on her head of house.

"Professor?" Lily Ann asked sweetly as he opened his mouth. "Pardon me for interrupting, but what is the point behind this? If you were trying to teach, then shouldn't you at least tell us the answers so we could take notes? Or perhaps you were trying to test, in which case you should be asking random students without singling one individual out. But if you were merely trying to ridicule, I'd suggest you get your facts straight. It appears as if you are implying that because he is famous, Harry is less inclined to study and that as such, he has not taken the time to look through his school books. If you look at the name of his owl, you will find that he found her name, Hedwig, in _A History of Magic. _You will also find that while both Harry and I are famous, Harry took the time to read our textbooks while being _more _famous than I am – I did not read anything of the textbook.

"Of course if your only intention in your comments was to advise, both Harry and I are well aware that fame isn't everything. In our eyes, we've only been famous for about a month, though we thank you for your consideration."

Professor Snape blinked twice and seemed unable to figure how he was supposed to respond. Apparently he wasn't used to students from his own house standing up for the Gryffindors. In fact, Lily Ann wouldn't have been surprised if it was the first time he had ever seen it.

Lily Ann smiled sweetly and folded her arms patiently waiting for the lesson to commence, fully aware that every eye in the room was on her. Draco gaped at her in utter astonishment and Daphne hissed urgently, "What do you think you're doing; he's a Gryffindor!"

"And he still my brother."

In the end Lily Ann lost a point for disrupting the class and found she didn't care. She had heard that Snape played favorites and decided that that really needed to change. No teacher should openly show favoritism. Though, she mused, it was more like discrimination against all Gryffindors.

Sitting down at lunch, Lily Ann found to her amusement that whispers seemed to follow her even more than usual as the word of her showdown with Professor Snape. The Slytherins were somewhat perplexed and even annoyed, though some were good natured enough to be amused. On the other hand this single event seemed to make her rather popular among the other houses, and especially so among the Gryffindors. Lily Ann even found herself being approached by members of the other houses to congratulate her, thank her, laugh with her, and other such trivialities so often that when Fred and George advanced from the Gryffindor table, Lily Ann had to put her foot down.

"Guys, if you're going to come over and tell me that I actually should be in Gryffindor, or any other house for that matter, save your breath. I've already heard," she laughed, gesturing to the Patil twins who were walking away with Zacharias Smith and Justin Finch-Fletchly.

The two twins looked at each other in mock reflection, "Well it wouldn't be a stretch to say that it takes a lot of nerve to go up against Snape…"

"With a touch of insanity…"

"And it takes real ingenuity to silence that git…"

"Not to mention there was a lot of loyalty to Harry there…"

"That was far to cunning for you to be anything but Slytherin." The twins nodded at each other as they finished listing the different house traits she had just displayed.

"Nah, we're just here to congratulate you that you've succeeded where we've failed in your first year to get Snape to take away points from his own house without a teacher witness," Fred said wistfully, making himself at home at the Slytherin table by leaning back and stretching out his long legs.

"She's become quite the little Marauder, she has."

"And as such, we would like to formally invite you to be involved in any way, shape or form in what we like to call business."

Smirking slightly at the image that "business" brought, Lily Ann shook her head. "While I appreciate the offer, at this time I have no need of the trouble that such "business" would bring. Although," she added with a mad gleam in her eye, "I may just take up that offer whenever Harry gets a bit annoying."

She shared an evil grin with the twins and they removed themselves from the table. As they whistled away, Draco took the place they had just vacated, looking rather sour.

"What did the weasels want? Surely they're above handouts," he glared at the older students who were now joining Lee Jordan at the Gryffindor table.

Lily Ann refrained from rolling her eyes as he muttered a string of curses under his breath, "Honestly, they're not that bad. And it's not a crime to be poor. Not everyone can be rich, you know."

Lily Ann never had a chance to complete her thought because at that moment, Draco let out a startled yell. Looking over at him she saw Draco staring at his plate with confusion. Ignoring her, he determinably took a bite of his pot pie _until it vanished. _Letting out a frustrated yell, he again attempted to take a bite before it again disappeared moments before it entered his mouth. Draco then began to shovel his food as quickly as he could, never managing to take a single bite before it vanished into thin air. Before long, his plate looked as clean as it had before Draco had loaded it.

Completely baffled, the two of them along with Vincent and Gregory, stared at the plate as the Great Hall filled with laughter at Draco's plight.

Three o'clock found Harry and Lily Ann, along with Ron and Tracey inside of Hagrid's hut, which was small and cramped, though it somehow seemed suitable for him. Tracey seemed to doubt the wisdom of coming with Lily Ann, but seeing Lily Ann's begging face, had agreed to come "just this once."

Hagrid seemed quite content to sit back and listen to them talk about their week, Fang drooling all over his knee until Ron started ranting about Professor Snape.

"Can you _believe _that they actually let him teach here? I _mean _he's not actually very good, now is he? Fred and George say they've never actually learned anything from him and this is their third year!"

"Oh I'm sure Fred and George are a great well of information. I don't even know how they manage to pass their first two years. You sure know how to choose your sources, Ronald," huffed Tracey, thoroughly put out by the jibe at her head of house.

"I swear he hates me. He's taken points from me three times already, and I've only been to class with him once! I didn't even do anything that last time…" Harry pointed out. "And he always seems to be contemplating my death whenever he looks at me."

"Nonsense!" Hagrid exclaimed. "Professor Snape is a Hogwarts teacher."

"At least he looks at you," Lily Ann interjected, completely ignoring Hagrid. "Imagine, your own head of house not looking at you! Even when he was taking points from me, he looked anywhere _but _at me."

"Something everyone wishes would happen to them," Ron muttered moodily, taking a bite out of the rock cakes set before him and grimacing, setting it back down on the plate looking like it had never been touched.

Hagrid must've sensed an argument brewing, and loudly changed the subject, "Well that's all over with now, yeh must've done more than Potions, now hasn't yeh?"

Lily Ann's thoughts immediately turned to Draco and she glanced darkly at Tracey, whose thoughts seemed to be heading the same direction.

"I've been pretty occupied this afternoon," she said elusively, really not in the mood to retell the story. She had spent two hours helping Draco find _something _in the school that he could eat. After finding no success, they went to Professor Snape for help, who quickly cast a counterspell that immediately ended the forced famine. Both she and Draco were rather irritated by the simplicity of the cure, and Draco had stormed off to plan revenge on the culprit.

Harry and Ron both snickered behind their hands, and Lily Ann glared at the pair of them.

"It's not funny you two! It was actually rather mean," Lily Ann said indignantly. "If anything, I'll be helping Draco get back at those jerks." Tracey nodded in agreement.

Hagrid looked thoroughly confused at the argument that was beginning to form, "Hold up you four, what'd be going on in the castle?"

Still glaring at Harry, Lily Ann responded vehemently, "Some _idiot _decided it would be funny to vanish anything that Draco tried to eat. It took hours to figure out how to stop them."

Harry snorted into his mug and muttered under his breath to Ron, "And I'm surprised he even _did _stop them." Ron smirked.

Unfortunately for Harry, Lily Ann heard him and went into a towering rage as things all began to click inside her head.

"And what would you know of that, Harry Potter?" she asked in a menacingly low voice.

Catching his mistake, Harry quickly backtracked. "I, uh, nothing," He stuttered unconvincingly.

"Harry James Potter, I know you far too well to believe your stupid lies," Lily Ann threatened. "Now tell me the truth before I set Vince and Greg on you."

Harry flinched, obviously thinking of the incidents that had begun on their very first day. Nobody wanted to be on the wrong side of Crabbe and Goyle. "He really is a bad influence on you, you know," He said evasively, trying to avoid the question.

Lily Ann however knew her brother far too well and read that statement for what it really was. She wasn't an idiot and was rather furious with her brother. "So you've decided that you know better than I do when it comes to my friends. You decided to take it into your own hands to make sure I don't go off with the 'wrong sort.' So you go off and punish those who don't stand up to par, starting with Draco. And yes," she added, seeing him open his mouth to protest, "I know you couldn't actually perform those spells but I know that you must've been the instigator. You just told…" here she paused in thought and then slapped her forehead, "Fred and George! Of course, how could I have been so _stupid! _They were right there right before Draco sat down."

Lily Ann's words rang truth, and Harry seemed to be hiding from her wrath as he sank lower and lower in his seat, signifying to her that she was correct.

She was standing now, looking as if she were about to burst, though her next words were eerily calm. "You know what? I can't believe you would actually do that to me after what I did in potions. Next time I think I'll just let Snape grill you."

With that, she turned on her brother and said to Hagrid, "I'm sorry, Hagrid, but I believe it's time for me to go. I have homework that I need to finish and I'd like to get it done before the weekend's up. Please tell Harry for me that I don't want to see his face until he's willing to respect my life decisions."

With a finally glare at her brother, Lily Ann left with Tracey without another word.

**Wow. That was a lot longer than I expected it to be. Every chapter has gotten progressively longer as I've gotten used to the whole FanFiction thing, but I never expected this. Must be part of the actually-enjoying-myself thing.**

**So now that I've figured out how to write, I'd like to know what it is I really need to work on. I'm not quite ready to get myself a beta, so I'd like to ask you guys. **

**Anything you'd like to see more of? Less?**

**What events/adventures do you want Lily Ann to be involved in? What should she just be an observer?**

**Review with your answers!**

**~HiddenReaderNinja**


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